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How Washington Works

A look at how Trump will change Washington.
Creation Date Saturday, 21 January 2017.
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In the Republican Primaries, Trump's rivals tried to pick him off early by pointing out that Trump had donated to Hillary Clinton and other Democrats. Not to be outdone, Trump quickly countered that he had donated to most of the Republicans on stage as well. While a couple of them declared themselves to not have been recipients of Trump's cash, another one was brazen enough to take the opportunity to ask for another donation. Trump was one step ahead of them. As an outsider, he knew he could expose their corruption, while even bragging about taking part in it, yet use it to tarnish them and escaped unscathed. Here is how he explained how Washington works, and how he played the system.

“I give to everybody. When they call, I give. You know what? When I need something from them, two years later, three years later, I call them, and they are there for me. . . . And that’s a broken system.”

Who could disagree with that? That clearly is a broken system. Trump used that to launch a campaign aimed at "draining the swamp" of corruption in Washington. To see what draining the swamp will look like, we first have to take a look at the swamp. You ready? Let's go.

How Washington Worked Under Obama:

Like any good swamp, you need some alligators. There are plenty to choose from, but since Trump was running against a person he declared to be a crooked politician, and she worked in the Obama Administration, and he furthermore fingered her (no pun intended) as one of the dirty politicians he bought off, we'll look at Crooked Hillary.

The corrupt politician:

Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State under President Obama. This gave her a lot of power and control in the Administration. This power and control was, according to Trump, up for sale. But not a straight transactional purchase, of course. Hillary had a charitable foundation called "The Clinton Foundation". If you wanted to meet with her to discuss how the government worked for you, a big donation apparently went a long way. Combine that with the fact that, as Trump said, when he needed something she would deliver, and you can see how her charity could become a regular layover for the money of rich folks who wanted more power or needed government favors.

So here we see a government primed for corruption. All we need is the other key players. Trump described them for us. We have corporate money, rich individual donors, and hedge fund managers all chomping at the bit to leverage some of their cash for Washington power that will in turn bring in more cash that can buy more power, and the wheel keeps on turning.

The Corporate CEO:

Meet our first representative of the crooked system, the corporate CEO who funnels money to the crooked politician. This is our friend Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil. He managed to send over $1 million in donations to the Clinton foundation during his tenure running the company, and trust me. They noticed. Leaked emails even show that he was considered for a paid speaking role with the Clinton Global Initiative, and praised him by saying that he was “prominently supportive of some of Duncan’s chief priorities, including teacher training, STEM education, and workforce development. As CEO, he has led major investments in education across the country, especially in educating girls.”

What did he get besides this consideration? There is no way of knowing, but it is interesting to note that after Hillary left office, sanctions were issued against Russia that ended up freezing a bunch of Exxon's money in a Russian investment. Did she keep his cash cow open as long as she could? If she had continued her service, would she have prevented these sanctions? I have no way of knowing that, but I do have Trump's word that when you need something, Hillary delivers, so I have to assume he got something out of the deal.

The Billionaire:

You might recognize this guy. Yes, as we have already established, Donald J. Trump admitted to donating money to Hillary Clinton, and receiving favors in return. Trump donations to Hillary herself include at least $4,100 to her Senate campaigns, and $2,300 to her Presidential campaign. Yes, you read that right. Donald Trump donated to the Presidential campaign of the woman his rally audiences would later subject to chants of "lock her up", and the woman who Trump would vow to lock up if he got elected, only to later back away from those claims saying they "played well" in the election but "now we don't care".

Was that all of his donations though? Oh, no. Trump not only donated to "Crooked Hillary", he also donated over $100,000 to her foundation that he would later also brand "crooked" and "the most corrupt enterprise in political history". Of course, he now claims that wasn't "pay for play", but if we go back to his earlier quote we know better than that. " I call them, and they are there for me."

The Banker:

No story of corruption is complete with the hedge fund manager and his crooked bank, and boy, did we dig up a good one for this woman. Of the bank Goldman Sachs, Trump once said "I know the guys at Goldman Sachs. They have total, total control over him. Just like they have total control over Hillary Clinton,". I wouldn't doubt that at all. Hillary Clinton received around $750,000 in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs, part of the $21.6 million she received in 2 years for speaking on Wall Street.

All of that is the bank though. Meet our Goldman Sachs banker and Hillary Clinton donor, Steve Mnuchin. In addition to the money given to her by his bank, and the $7 million donated to her Super PAC in this election cycle by his business partner George Soros, he personally donated in the neighborhood of $30,000 to Hillary Clinton.

So there we have it, just like Trump told us. The crooked politician, the Corporate interest, the Billionaire donor, and the banker all looking to cash in on the politician they bought and paid for. That, however, is the old Washington. I'll bet you're glad we are cleaning up that swamp. So let's take a look at how the new Washington will work, shall we?

How Washington Will Work Under Trump:

The crooked politician:

Unfortunately, President Trump has backed away from his promise to lock her up, but at least Hillary Clinton is gone from the scene. Now we should have a clean Washington, and hopefully a Secretary of State that is beyond reproach and above corruption.

The Corporate CEO:

Our buddy Rex Tillerson is no longer in any position to funnel a million dollars to a corrupt Secretary of State thanks to Donald Trump. He made sure Rex will never again use the purse of ExxonMobil to corrupt our politicians, since he will have to resign his CEO position in order to take over his post of... Secretary of State in the Trump Administration.

The Banker:

Okay, that was a little disappointing, but since Rex is already going to be Secretary of State, we don't have to worry about our buddy Steve Mnuchin getting that job. We also don't have to worry about him corrupting Rex Tillerson, since he vacated his position at Goldman Sachs to... serve as Secretary of the Treasury in the Trump Administration.

The Billionaire:

If you haven't caught on by now, this is where you should have realized that this was a stupid plan in the first place. Yeah, he's the President now. So for those of you keeping score at home, the Billionaire who bragged about buying off crooked Hillary to the tune of $6,400 has replaced her with the CEO whose corporation she was into for $1 million and, for good measure, brought in the banker whose bank she was into for $750,000. See, you didn't clean up Washington, you simply cut out the middleman. Now the Billionaire is President, ExxonMobil is CEO, and Goldman Sachs is running the treasury. Thank you for playing "Should we or should we not trust a man who is admitting to corruption to clean up the corruption". And before you start with the "But Steve, it sounded like he really meant it" mantra, I know! He himself said"Then I started saying it like I meant it, right?"! That's what con men do. They say it like they mean it.

Now you may have happened to notice, but besides the absence of Crooked Hillary, there is one other distinguishable difference between the old Washington and the new one. Did you catch it? That's right, the charitable foundation is gone. Remember them? The Clinton Foundation, the good old middle man where people paid their money to get their political power. It's out of the loop now, a relic of a bygone era when corruption at least had a little bit of an upside. The buying and selling of power resulted in $313 million being spent on medication and R&D for cures for diseases like AIDS. Wow, aren't you glad we drained that swamp?

Let me be clear here. What Hillary Clinton was doing is absolutely unethical. Why? Because every American should have equal access to their government. Meeting with a politician shouldn't be based on how much you can donate to their charity. That being said, I voted for Hillary. Why? Because I'm smart enough to know that removing her charity doesn't fix the problem. All of these politicians have Political Action Committees. Yes, even way back in 2015 when Trump was still selling that bs line about self-funding, he too had a PAC and, surprise surprise, his was so crooked it vanished under scrutiny. So if Hillary didn't have her hand out for her charity, she would have it out for her PAC... just like the rest of them, including Trump do. Does this really come as any surprise to anyone?

More than a third of the almost 200 people who have met with President-elect Donald Trump since his election last month, including those interviewing for administration jobs, gave large amounts of money to support his campaign and other Republicans this election cycle.

So when one had to donate to "Crooked Hillary's criminal enterprise" to get a meeting with her, it was "pay to play", but when Trump sets up meetings based on who is forking out the big bucks, it is "draining the swamp". The reality, folks, is he's draining the swamp alright. Right out of the Clinton charity and into his fat pockets. Oh well. At the end of the day, nothing has really changed in Washington and I wasn't getting anything from the Clinton Foundation so no big loss on my account. Don't worry. I'm sure the Clinton's will find another convoluted way to raise money for AIDS victims. As long as we don't "lock her up", of course.

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